Here's a solution: ride at night! We did a "Moonlight Ride West" this month, and about a dozen people (we'll see if we get the >50 tomorrow for the Standard Eastern version, but we're not on a weekend so who knows? and I'll be at a bike meeting and can't go unless it gets canceled for lack of quorum).
We had some wild storms this a.m. but in the afternoon but a single cell formed... happily a little further north and east than our destination (Mahomet DQ). It gave us an *awesome* color-cloud show that I've got a snap of but I don't think did the colors right, and the blue under the moon sky had a linear color pattern I've honestly never ever seen before with almost stripes of three shads of blue. I'm sure it was a mathematical function of the light reflecting off that thunderstorm cell.
There was neat cloud-to-cloud lightning here and there, too... little sparklies... which were over and done with by the time darkness really fell.
I'm going to put in a bid to find a local vendor who wants to feed us... DQ is so cold and processed and "fast food" as opposed to the Sidney Dairy Barn...
Ride back was Under THe Moon and since we were goin' east we could see it! Where there were cool microclimates there was spoooooky mist on the ground... and I'm glad the big honkin' bug that whanged down my shirt wasn't a biter, but it was a burrower so my attempts to find it and get it outta there ended with an exoskeleton crunch. THankfully I remembered it and tossed the bra in the shower and rinsed... it looked like a common beetle (and 3/4 inch... not really honkin' big...) -- but obvioulsy one of the flying sort.
My left shoulder is all stiff, though, which started two weeks ago Friday with a badly hung camelbak 30 mile ride. Hot shower but... I don't know if a massage (which I don't generally partake of) or a muscle relaxer (same there... I'm a chill dude) ... or maybe ice? would unlock things.
But dude! Yesterday I had ZERO miles!!! (the only day in many months for that to be true) because I was driving Baltimore to Urbana and Traffic Happened... but today was 52. I'll add pics soon...